Describing Capacitors

Describing Capacitors
NOTE: National Instruments Multisim Circuit Design Suite was used to create all circuit
diagram figures and the list of symbols.
WARNING: Since electricity is inherently dangerous, don't try to use capacitors unless you
know how to be safe while working with electricity.
In this document, I will describe what capacitance is, what a capacitor is, how a capacitor
charges and discharges when in a resistor-capacitor (RC) circuit, and some applications of
capacitors.
Capacitance
Capacitance (C) is a value that describes how much charge (Q) a capacitor can store on its
plates measured in Farads (F), the higher the capacitance the more charge that can be stored by
the resistor. A higher capacitance also means a greater amount of charge can be stored compared
to a capacitor with a lower capacitance with the same voltage applied to both. The simplest way
to get a capacitor with the largest capacitance is to just make it bigger since having larger plates
will allow more charge to be stored.
The equation for capacitance can be written as:
𝑄
𝐶=
𝑉
What is a Capacitor?
Simply put, a capacitor is an electrical component that stores energy in an electric field. The
simplest capacitor is constructed by placing two conductive metal plates, one connected to the
positive and one connected to the negative terminal of a power source, in parallel with each other
with an air gap in between, by doing this you have created what is simply known as a parallel
plate capacitor.
While very easy to construct a parallel plate capacitor is not the most effective because you
can only get so much capacitance from one without making it unnecessarily large. To circumvent
this, another type of capacitor called an electrolytic capacitor is made by rolling different layers
of material into a cylinder, these layers consist of two outside layers of paper followed by two
more layers of a conductive metal like aluminum which is separated by an innermost layer of a
dielectric that insures the two layers of metal never touch and increase the capacitance of the
capacitor.
Electrolytic Capacitor
1
How does a Capacitor Charge?
Figure 1 – RC Circuit Charging

Pictured in Figure 1 is a very simple RC circuit with a switch to easily transition between the
charging and discharging states. In Figure 1 the switch is positioned so that the capacitor will
charge. A capacitor if allowed to charge up fully, will always store the total amount of voltage
equal to the max output voltage of the source (E), in this case, 30 volts. Because it takes time for
a capacitor to reach its max charge, also known as its steady state charge, the voltage across the
capacitor cannot instantaneously change, but the current through it can.
The time it takes for the capacitor to fully charge, also known as the transient period, is
determined by the circuit and can be calculated by multiplying the value of the resistor by the
value of the capacitor, this value measured in seconds called the time constant is expressed as the
Greek letter tau (Τ). After five time constants, the charging period of the capacitor ends and no
more charge can be stored. In the circuit shown in Figure 1, the time constant is one millisecond
or one one-thousandth of a second, meaning that it takes the capacitor five milliseconds to reach
its full charge.
The charging of a capacitor is not linear, it is an exponential function that starts with a rapid
increase, with the capacitor reaching 63% of its max charge after the first time constant or one
millisecond in this example. After the first three time constants, the charging slows rapidly going
from 95% charge after three time constants to 99% charge at five time constants.
The voltage across a charging capacitor can be expressed as a function of time:
𝑉𝑐(𝑡) = 𝐸(1 − 𝑒 −𝑡/𝛵 )
The graph created by plugging in the E and Τ values for our RC circuit, being 30 volts and 1
millisecond respectively is represented in Figure 2 seen below.
2
Figure 2 – Charging Period Graph
How Does a Capacitor Discharge?
Figure 3 – RC Circuit Discharging

Pictured in Figure 3 is the same circuit as before but with the switch flipped downwards so
that the capacitor will begin its discharge period. The discharge period is very similar to the
charging period if the capacitor is allowed to charge to its max, it takes the same amount of time
to fully complete as the charging period and the graph created by its function, pictured below in
Figure 4, is a flipped version of the charging period graph, which is shown in Figure 5.
The voltage across a discharging capacitor can be expressed as a function of time:
𝑉𝑐(𝑡) = 𝐸𝑒 −𝑡/𝛵
3
Discharging Period
35
30
25
Voltage (V)
20
15
10
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time Constants
Figure 4 – Discharging Period Graph
Charging Period Vs. Discharging Period

35
30
25
Voltage (V)
20
15 Charging Period
10 Discharge Period
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Time Constants
Figure 5 – Charging Period and Discharging Period Comparison
4
Applications of Capacitors
In this section, I will discuss some practical uses of capacitors. Capacitors are used in the
touchpads of laptops; you might even be using one as you read this. There are a few different
ways that the capacitors are used to make a touchpad work, one of these ways is called
capacitance sensing which detects the natural charge carried by our bodies to position your
mouse cursor meaning that if you are wearing gloves or any other kind of covering the mouse
cursor will not move. The other type of sensing is called conductance sensing and is much
simpler than capacitance sensing. In conductance sensing two flexible conductive metal sheets
are separated by a very thin gap and when the top sheet bends and makes contact with
conductive bumps on the lower sheet the conductance in that area increases massively, that spike
in conductance is then converted into the movement of your mouse cursor. Since conductance
sensing only needs pressure to be exerted onto the top plate to move the mouse, gloves, as well
as pens, can be used.
Another common implementation of capacitors is in surge protectors. Most power strips have
built-in surge protectors in them, these protect sensitive devices like TVs and computers from
being damaged by large surges of voltage from outside sources. Surge protectors can do this
because as mentioned above in the section about charging cycles I explained that the voltage
across a capacitor can not change in an instant so any short-lived spikes of high voltages will not
be able to damage your electronics.
Review
In this document, I went into detail about, capacitance, what capacitors are, the charging and
discharging cycles of capacitors, and a few applications of capacitors.
Glossary
Resistor: Used in circuits to restrict the flow of current, while restricting the flow of current they
also dissipate power in the form of heat.
Dielectric: A material with insulating properties that affect the amount of charge stored on the
plates of a capacitor
5
List of Symbols
DC Source Voltage
Electrolytic Capacitor:
Ground:
Resistor:
Switch:
6
Works Consulted
Boylestad, R. L. (2023). Introductory Circuit Analysis (14th ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

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Describing Capacitors

Figure 1 – RC Circuit Charging

How Does a Capacitor Discharge?

Figure 3 – RC Circuit Discharging

Figure 4 – Discharging Period Graph

Charging Period Vs. Discharging Period

Figure 5 – Charging Period and Discharging Period Comparison

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